BERNARDO FALLAS, Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle |
July 9, 2007

The resurgance of Brian Ching, left, and new additions like Nate Jaqua have taken the Dynamo to the top of the MLS' s Western Conference.

A first-half goal by Brian Ching was all the Dynamo needed on the offensive end to keep their winning ways going Sunday.

Keeper Pat Onstad and another strong defensive effort took care of the rest.

Onstad had a key save in the first half, and the streaking Dynamo asserted their status as the best defensive team in Major League Soccer, shutting out an opponent for the fifth consecutive time in a 1-0 victory over D.C. United before 15,033 at Robertson Stadium.

The victory, the team's second in a row and seventh in eight games, propelled the Dynamo (9-5-2) to the top of the Western Conference standings for the first time since the first week of last season.

The Dynamo tied FC Dallas in the standings with 29 points with a game in hand. Because the Dynamo lead the head-to-head against Dallas, the defending MLS champions take the top spot.

The victory also extended the Dynamo's unbeaten streak to eight — the longest-running such streak in MLS.

United (7-5-2) lost for only the second time in 10 games but remained tied for second place with the New England Revolution in the Eastern Confer- ence.

The match was the third in a nine-day span for the Dynamo, who will travel to Charleston, S.C., to play the Battery, a United Soccer League team, in U.S. Open Cup action Tuesday. The team also has a league date with the Fire on Thursday at Bridgeview, Ill., before returning to Houston to face Toronto FC on Sunday.

As busy as the schedule has been, the team appears to have not missed a step, making United the latest victim of their shutout streak, now at 515 minutes.

"Defensively, the back four, the four in front of them and the two up front, at all times and parts of the game, I think, were very very solid," Kinnear said.

Ching combined with midfielder Richard Mulrooney for the only scoring of the night in the 33rd minute. Mulrooney rushed to collect a loose ball off a corner kick and, upon coming across it, unloaded a razing, left-footed shot from near the top of the box that an alert Ching deflected past United keeper Troy Perkins.

"I'd been teasing Richard about shooting the ball with his left foot all week; he doesn't strike it the hardest or the cleanest," Ching said. "I saw him about to strike it with his left foot and I readied myself, and the ball came right to me. I was fortunate to have redirected it."

Just minutes earlier, Onstad averted catastrophe for the Dynamo when the veteran keeper, who finished with three saves, denied Luciano Emilio at point-blank range after the United forward was able to sneak past defender Eddie Robinson in the 30th minute.

"If not for Pat, we're down 1-0 and we're chasing the game," Ching said.